of Fara Pizza—one of the original members of PMQ’s Pizza Hall of Fame.

and sprinkle it on top of the pizza, then use a pair of scissors to cut basil he grew in the shop window. With all the people waiting, I once saw him stop mid-pizza to answer the phone. He spent five minutes giving someone directions to the shop—and still no one complained.”

John Arena, owner of Las Vegas-based Metro Pizza, has similar memories. “Watching Dom work was a master class in the power of single-minded devotion to our craft,” he says. “Every pizza he made was an autobiography that told you all you need to know about the man, his values and his love for the people who passed through his doors. Dom elevated the humble New York street slice from a commodity to a minimalist work of art that inspired the public to appreciate pizza on a completely different level.”

Indeed, in an era when many believe time is money, Dom stood out for his insistence that some things were more important than either time or money. Or, as Dom said himself to The New York Times in 2005, “Pizza has become a fast food. My pizza is slow food. And if I made it fast, it wouldn’t be any good.”